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Friday, July 15, 2011

What Makes This Time Different

First and foremost, welcome to my new followers who found me through the Trading Pounds profile on me! I'm very excited to have you follow my journey! =)

This week has been insane!! Not just crazy, not just busy, but flat out insane! Although my summer class is now over, I'm not quite done with school. I still have some work I need to finish and submit to professors for my classes from the Spring semester that I couldn't finish because of my hard drive crash. I'm so close, I just want it to be done. I also am trying to get the final preparations taken care of for my move. Movers, storage containers, dealing with my apartment complex, planning a trip around the country to look at possible new homes, etc. My stress levels are at about a 12 out of 10 right now, but I'm all right with that because I know in the end all of this is going to be worth it somehow...I just have to have faith, and that can be hard at times. So my new workout regime consists of packing and moving boxes around my apartment, and my diet is eating whatever is currently in my fridge and pantry. Not the best of plans, but I'm still trying and doing the best that I can right now. This is why I decided that since I'm not the best role model right now a guest post might be a good plan, lol.
Stephanie was gracious enough to write a post for today. When she and I began talking by e-mail a while ago I asked her if something felt different this time than previous dieting. At the time I couldn't put my finger on it but I felt like this time was going to be different for myself. Stephanie shared that she too felt different this time. In keeping with that first conversation Stephanie decided to share her story of what made this time different. Stephanie will also be hosting some cooking classes in the Louisville/Southern Indiana area as well as in North Carolina. If you live in any of these areas I strongly suggest you check it out dates and menus here and you never know, you may see me there! I hope you enjoy, and even though I packed my scale, I'll keep you all posted on my progress in life these next two months as I find my way. =)

Stephanie Wetzel is a writer and entrepreneur on a mission to help women trade in their excess pounds for the life they want to live. She has lost over 145 pounds by eating real food, changing her habits and blogging about it all on Trading Pounds. Download her free guide full of details on exactly how she did it. She’s also chatting away on Twitter and Facebook.

I was trapped in my big body. I had wanted to escape for years, but just couldn’t find the way out. I failed diet after diet in my attempt to lose weight. By the time I reached my thirties, I had given up all hope of ever knowing anything but an obese life.

Then one cold January day, I came face to face with the girl in my mirror. Staring into her eyes and seeing the pain I had spent so much time ignoring, I realized that hers was a life worth fighting for. I just had to try one more time. Somehow in that moment, I already knew that things would be different this time.

I didn’t set out on this journey eighteen months ago with the intention of losing weight. I wanted to create a new life for myself, one that would allow me to simply maintain a healthy weight. My focus wasn’t on researching the latest diet trends, but the wide variety of fresh foods and when they are in season in North Carolina.

Calories weren’t on my mind, but creating a healthy plate was. Exercise wasn’t a blip on the radar. Food and cooking became the center of my world. And that was when everything really changed for me.

Why Diets Fail Us

Like most, when I talk about my past, I say that I have failed diets before. As I continue down this path, I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that I never really had a chance at succeeding. I’m seeing the reality of things a bit differently.

The truth is we don’t fail. It’s the diets and other extreme measures of weight loss that fail us. We all want a quick and easy solution, but we don’t acknowledge that these methods are unsustainable. And when we stop following the “rules,” we gain everything lost (and more) right back.

We’ve become stuck in the endless dieting saga, and it’s time for a real revolution. Instead of seeing food (and it’s various components) as the enemy, or something to be restricted, I decided to embrace everything there is to love about food in order to find sustainable balance for my life.

When Progress Happens

I was your average American eater . . . junk food had been at the center of my existence for a lifetime. When I started this journey, I cleared out all the junk in order to make room for a whole new way of eating. I learned more about portion control and really started focusing on how the food I was eating made me feel.

I used my body as the gauge of good and bad. I believe that this is the key component we overlook when trying to lose weight. We are all unique individuals. No one program or food is going to affect us all in the same way. In order to find balance, we have to go through a process of trial and error.

It isn’t about creating a set of restrictions for yourself; it’s uncovering what makes you feel great. These days, I’m still enjoying cupcakes and ice cream, but I’ve also lost over 145 pounds. I’ve given up eating rice and cereal, but I don’t miss the way they made me feel after I ate them.

I have found balance. I know that this is going to last for me because everything I do comes naturally; it works for my life. This time, it really is different.

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